31
“They must have seen us,” Evan said from behind a big pile of gray bricks they were using to shield themselves while they tried to regain some semblance of composure. Or as much composure as a person can have after yet another near-death experience. Evan still wasn’t talking to Teena, but his willingness to serve as her human shield had to show he still cared, right?
“Yeah, we’re fucked,” Teena agreed, pulling the miraculously intact Super Sprayer wagon back to their hiding spot.
“It’s okay,” Leo said. “They’re not moving in on us.”
“They probably figure they’ll kill us when we get closer,” Teena said.
“If we’re lucky, they think we’re already dead,” Evan said.
Ha, progress, Teena thought.
They were within a hundred feet of the ship. Twelve alien guards stood rigid and ready, daring them to intrude.
“I have an idea,” Evan said, taking the wagon from Teena.
He stepped out into the open as if he was done creeping around. The Super Sprayer rattled as he pulled it toward the ship, not really trying for stealth. Teena wanted to call out to him, or better yet, run and stop him. But the look on his face was so determined that she also wanted to see what would happen. Evan Brighton had her full and complete attention.
He stopped about twelve feet from the end of the ramp. Now he had the aliens’ attention, too. Despite their expressionless faces, Teena thought they remembered Evan, or maybe remembered all of them. How awesome would it be if the aliens were scared of them?
But then the left row started to advance on Evan, walking single file down the ramp and extending their claws. Just looking at the claws was enough to make the gash on Teena’s thigh throb. They could slice right through Evan. She grabbed Leo’s hand next to her, pulling him along. “He needs our help,” she said to Leo.
They ran toward Evan, who didn’t take his eyes off the aliens as he turned on the Super Sprayer and reached for the hose.
“Hey, jerks,” he said, pointing the hose. He pressed on the handle. Nothing. Teena’s heart sank. The machine wasn’t vibrating or rumbling; it was dead. Evan pressed futilely on the handle again, his stupefied face devolving into an expression that said, “Oh, shit.”
Time had stopped, and instead of her life flashing before her eyes, Teena saw her would-be killers and what they would do to them. The aliens were huge, and they were close, and their claws alone were enough to leave the three of them lying in ribbons of spandex and skin on the ground. Teena could hear Evan gulp.
“I said, hey, jerks,” he tried again, shaking the hose. At the very least, the failed machinery had the aliens’ interest for now. Teena quietly pulled out her perfume gun, catching Leo’s eye so he’d do the same. He already had his out and aimed.
Before she could fire, she was lifted into the air, as an alien slid a long claw under her backpack strap and shook her, sending her gun to the ground. Next to her, another alien had Leo in the same unfortunate position. The aliens stomped on the toy guns, steam rising from beneath their feet as the perfume splashed their flesh, not enough to kill them because the tender membrane covered the aliens’ torsos, not their legs. Teena looked into the creature’s netted, buglike eyes and saw her own terrified face a million times.
Then the biggest alien wrapped a claw around Evan’s back. The straps of his toy chest plate ripped as the claw ran over them and the Iron Man shield fell to the ground as the alien lifted him. Evan, who had saved her again and again, was going to die, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
“Hey, Evan,” she croaked, feeling some satisfaction as he turned his head as much as he could to see around his captor. As he watched, Teena kicked the Super Sprayer, hard, with the side of her foot and said a little prayer. Suddenly, the machine hummed and gurgled to life. If they made it past this, he had to forgive her. “Try again.”
He pointed the hose at the alien that had him several feet off the ground. He pressed the button, and Teena held her breath. The cologne cocktail came shooting out, turning his alien to dust. Evan landed on the ground in a pile of its ashes. Still on the ground, he aimed the spray at the aliens holding Teena and Leo. The creatures’ deaths were instant, and Teena and Leo hit the ground with thuds. Teena didn’t mind the pain in her tailbone. She was alive.
“Hell, yeah!” Leo yelled, getting to his feet and helping Teena to hers.
Evan aimed the hose at the three aliens who’d been blocking the foot of the ramp. They each burst in rapid succession, like exploding dominoes.
“The other ones, get the other ones,” Teena said, pointing at the other six aliens that were now coming at them from the side.
Evan aimed the Super Sprayer, but this time, it just shot a dribble of cologne onto the ground. “Shit,” he said. “It’s empty.”
“And our guns are dead,” Leo said, pointing at their crushed squirt guns.
The six aliens had them surrounded, three to a side with claws extended and ready to avenge their freshly dead brethren. Teena had one foot on the ramp. Leo was just behind her, and Evan was still on the ground, next to the now-empty Super Sprayer. The second any of them tried to reach into their packs, the aliens would kill them. But the ramp was wide open. She could run right onto the ship. Leo and Evan would follow. She just wished she could ensure Evan could get up from his vulnerable position at the things’ feet. She looked back and saw the beasts holding devices that looked like shiny green golf balls.
“What are those things?” Teena asked, just as one of the aliens let go of his. It zipped through the sky, hovering between Teena’s and Leo’s faces, where it shot out a sudden burst of green fumes that clouded over them.
“What the fuck?” Leo said, trying to move away from the fumes. His legs seemed glued to the ground. “I can’t move.”
“Me, neither,” Teena said, her legs frozen as a hardening sensation took hold of her torso, then her arms. She looked back into Evan’s scared face as her own stopped moving.